John W McArthur1

The Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals

More than a decade after the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ample
confusion persists regarding their genesis. In particular, many people misunderstand the relationship
between the contents of the September 2000 UN Millennium Declaration and the original MDG Targets
that were extracted from that Declaration. 2 As recently as 2012, I have heard senior global policy
figures state a belief that, “The Millennium Declaration did not establish any quantitative targets. Those
were set afterwards.” This is not correct. All of the MDGs’ original formal Targets were established in
the Millennium Declaration.

The roots of the misunderstanding probably lie in the U.S. government’s stance from mid-2001, when
the MDGs were first used as a policy term, through September 2005, when President Bush first used the
words “Millennium Development Goals” in public. During the interim period, U.S. officials would
commonly state that, “The United States supports the goals of the Millennium Declaration but not the
Millennium Development Goals,” or that “The United States supports Goals 1 through 7 but not Goal 8.”
When looking at the actual contents of the Millennium Declaration and the original MDG Targets,
neither statement is logical.

The following describes the issues through the form of an FAQ structure.

1. Which Targets were taken directly from the Millennium Declaration?

All of the original MDG Targets were taken directly from the Millennium Declaration. Following the
September 2000 Millennium Summit, the UN General Assembly mandated Secretary-General Kofi Annan
to prepare a long-term roadmap towards the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. Annan in
turn commissioned Assistant Secretary-General Michael Doyle to coordinate a process to extract the
development-related outcomes of the Millennium Declaration and thereby crystallize the priorities for
follow-up.

In working through the prose of world leaders’ commitments embedded in the body of the Millennium
Declaration, Doyle and his team (which included people like Jan Vandemoortele of UNDP and others
from UNICEF, the OECD, World Bank, IMF, UNFPA and later WHO) identified a subset of 18 politically
agreed commitments,which they categorized under eight overarching “Goals.” These 18 commitments
were labeled as “Targets.” Ten out of the 18 Targets were quantitative in nature and nine out of ten set
a deadline for 2015, the exception being the slum dweller Target for 2020. Table 1 lists the original 18
MDG Targets next to the relevant passage(s) from the Millennium Declaration. [The 18 Targets were
later expanded to be 21, based on 2005 intergovernmental agreements, as described under point #6
below.] Appendix 1 includes the complete Development section of the Millennium Declaration.

The only Target that could potentially be deemed an interpretive stretch from the Millennium
Declaration to the MDGs is the non-quantitative Target 9, which is to, “Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental

1
Comments and corrections are appreciated and can be sent to jmcarthur@brookings.edu. I thank Koen Davidse,
Michael Doyle and Mark Suzman for comments on an earlier draft of this note. Any errors remain my own.
2
In this document the words “Goals” and “Targets” are capitalized when referring to the formal MDG objectives.

1
resources.” The Millennium Declaration includes the first half of the sentence but not the second half,
although the latter can be presumed as addressed through the substance of “Agenda 21,” which has its
own complicated global history. However, Target 9 has never to my knowledge been cited as a source of
significant global political friction.

2. Exactly which Targets were quantitative Targets?

Of the original 18 Targets, only 10 were quantitative and deadline-driven in nature:
• Goals 1 through 6 included eight quantitative Targets, as marked by “Q” in Table 1.
• Goal 7 included two quantitative Targets plus one non-quantitative Target, the latter marked by
“NQ” in Table 1.
• Goal 8 included 7 non-quantitative Targets, with no explicit deadlines.

The 10 quantitative Targets are generally considered the core aims of the MDGs, and the 8 non-
quantitative Targets are typically seen as important enablers.

3. What about the baselines?

In the period between the 2000 Millennium Declaration and the 2001 formal branding of the MDGs, the
one substantive adjustment made by UN officials was to identify a 1990 baseline for all the 2015
Targets. This was important because most of the proportionate Targets in the Millennium Declaration
are not explicit regarding a baseline, otherwise the question would have been: to halve poverty by 2015
compared to what? The one exception is the Millennium Declaration language for child and maternal
mortality, which specifies ambitions “compared to current rates,” although a common sense reading of
the Declaration might presume the year 2000 applies throughout.

The 1990 baseline was identified for two key reasons. First, as Doyle’s team assessed the available
information, the statistical experts pointed out that data for 2000 were not yet available for a wide
range of countries, and were not likely to be for another few years. Referencing the year 1990 allowed
monitoring efforts to begin much more quickly. Second, the team determined that 1990 would be a
more reasonable fit compared to historical trends, thereby lessening the pressures on world leaders for
2015. Even though the MDGs were squarely created to change trajectories, the UN leadership did want
the new Goals to be viably achievable.

Thus anyone who prefers the “goals of the Millennium Declaration” to the MDGs is arguing for more
ambitious goals, which would presumably require even more aid financing. (The caveat here is that the
quantitative Targets for primary education and gender equality are absolute values and thus did not
hinge analytically on a baseline.) Such an argument also implicitly advocates a more expansive set of
objectives, since the MDGs include only a subset of the goals of the Millennium Declaration.

4. But I thought Goal 8 set foreign aid targets?

Goal 8 has been commonly interpreted to imply aid targets – and most commonly the target of 0.7
percent of national income – but there are no explicit aid targets within the MDGs. Nonetheless, the
MDGs do imply the need for increased aid and their political lifeblood hinged on the agreements of the
2002 Monterrey Consensus, which amounted to the financial framework in support of the Goals. As
outlined in Table 2, the Millennium Declaration explicitly refers to a planned follow-up “High-Level
International and Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development” as the key juncture for
figuring out how to finance the Declaration’s sustainable development objectives. That Financing for
Development event was originally slated for 2001, but ended up taking place in Monterrey, Mexico in
March 2002.

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In Monterrey, President Bush and other world leaders signed the pivotal 21st century intergovernmental
agreement around aid frameworks, famously declaring in paragraph 42 that, “We urge developed
countries that have not done so to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7 percent of gross
national product (GNP) as [official development assistance] to developing countries.” This language was
painstakingly negotiated between senior European and American diplomats, with the latter insisting on
the word “towards” alongside “the target.” This wiggle word might have left ambiguity as to how long it
might ever take to achieve the target, but it is unambiguous that the United States and all other
countries endorsed 0.7 as a legitimate aid target in 2002.

In Monterrey, this promise of developed countries getting serious on financial support was paired with
developing countries’ explicit commitment to good governance and to mobilizing domestic resources,
including a key phrase stressing that, “Each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and
social development” (paragraph 6). The agreement also affirmed that markets are the primary engine
of economic development, and that aid is needed to support poor countries where markets and local
governments couldn’t meet the key challenges on their own. This was how the MDGs took shape as the
world’s first explicit development partnership framework between developed and developing countries.

The Millennium Declaration does make multiple non-quantitative assertions regarding the need for
increased official development assistance (ODA), as also outlined in Table 2. Thus anyone who cites the
Millennium Declaration as the reference point for aid budgets is in fact referring to an argument for
increased aid.

5. How do the MDG “indicators” fit in?

Within the MDG structure, the Goals and Targets have a very different status than the dozens of
“indicators” that are used to track progress against them, even though all three categories are often
listed together in documentation. The Goals and Targets have the political legitimacy that comes from
intergovernmental agreements. In 2001, the UN interagency working group chaired by Doyle proposed
a series of indicators that could reasonably be used to track progress on the Goals and Targets. The
indicators have since evolved through a valiant technical process whereby expert staff align ongoing (if
imperfect) improvements in data systems with the political agreements of world leaders. The indicators
are not a product of intergovernmental agreement and should not be considered in the same political
category as the Goals and Targets.

This distinction has been especially important when any particular UN member state has taken offense
to the use of an indicator. One particular complaint often centered around the use of an indicator to
track aid flows as a share of national income, since the MDGs include no explicit aid targets.
Notwithstanding the points above regarding Monterrey and the 0.7 percent target, this complaint is also
inconsistent with even a purist Millennium Declaration perspective, since the Declaration states in
paragraph 15 that, “We call on the industrialized countries: […] To grant more generous development
assistance, especially to countries that are genuinely making an effort to apply their resources to
poverty reduction.” An ODA indicator is legitimate in tracking progress on that all to action.

As a reflection of the difference between MDG Goals and Targets on one side and indicators on the
other, in the course of the work of the UN Millennium Project, Kofi Annan’s independent advisory body
mandated to recommend an action plan for the MDGs, we respected and closely interacted with the
work of the indicator group, and some of the Project’s task forces deployed significant effort to suggest
improved indicators. But the Project never cited the indicators work as a reference point of

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intergovernmental agreement. Indeed the UN Millennium Project’s final January 2005 report, Investing
in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, lists all the MDG Goals
and Targets at the outset but does not detail the lengthy list of indicators.

6. How did 18 MDG Targets become 21 MDG Targets?

Following the seminal outcomes of the 2005 UN World Summit, the MDG Targets were updated in 2006
to incorporate the intergovernmental agreements from that event. Table 3 presents the summit
outcome language that led to four adjustments: three new Targets and one revised Target. First, a
Target to achieve universal access to reproductive health was added under Goal 5 for maternal
mortality. Second, a Target to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010 was added under
Goal 6 for infectious diseases. Third, a Target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 was added
under Goal 7 for the environment. Fourth, the original Target 16 for employment was tweaked to
include the World Summit agreement to, “achieve full and productive employment and decent work for
all, including women and young people,” and was relocated from Goal 8 on global partnership to a more
logical Goal 1 for ending extreme poverty.

In order to remove confusion between Goal numbers and Target numbers, the UN also subsequently
adjusted the labeling system whereby the Targets are ordered by capital letters under each of the MDG
Goals, i.e., a simple “[Goal Number].[Letter]” system. Thus the Target under Goal 2 for primary
education is now described as “Target 2.A” rather than “Target 3.”

For completeness, Table 4 also maps the Targets from the original 1 through 18 numbering to the
current ordering from 1.A through 8.F.

4
 Table 1: The Original 18 MDG Targets and corresponding language from the Millennium Declaration
Original MDG Target (as of 2005) *
Goal 1 – Eradicate Poverty and Hunger
(Q) Target 1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a
day
(Q) Target 2. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Goal 2 – Achieve universal primary education
(Q) Target 3. Ensure that, by 2015, children
everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling
Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower
women
(Q) Target 4. Eliminate gender disparity in primary
and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and
in all levels of education no later than 2015
Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality
(Q) Target 5. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990
and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Goal 5 – Improve maternal health
(Q) Target 6. Reduce by three-quarters, between
1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
(Q) Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to
reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
(Q) Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to
reverse the incidence of malaria and other major
diseases
Goal 7 – Ensure environmental sustainability
(NQ) Target 9. Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into country policies and
programs and reverse the loss of environmental
resources
(Q) Target 10. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation
(Q) Target 11. Have achieved by 2020 a significant
improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers
*Language from the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Note: (Q) indicates quantitative Target. (NQ) indicates non-quantitative Target.
Millennium Declaration Language (September 2000)
Para 19. We resolve further: To halve, by the year 2015, the
proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than
one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger.
Para 19. We resolve further: […] To ensure that, by the same
date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and
boys will have equal access to all levels of education.
Para 20. We also resolve: To promote gender equality and the
empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty,
hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly
sustainable.
Para 19. We resolve further: […] By the same date, to have
reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five
child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates.
Para 19. We resolve further: […] To have, by then, halted, and
begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of
malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity.
Para 22. We reaffirm our support for the principles of
sustainable development, including those set out in Agenda 21,
agreed upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development
Para 23. We resolve therefore to adopt in all our
environmental actions a new ethic of conservation and
stewardship
Para 19. We resolve further: […] To halve, by the year 2015, […]
the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford
safe drinking water
[WSSD] Para. 8.* We agree to halve, by the year 2015, the
proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe
drinking water (as outlined in the Millennium Declaration) and
the proportion of people who do not have access to basic
sanitation
Para 19. We resolve further: […] By 2020, to have achieved a
significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers as proposed in the "Cities Without Slums" initiative.
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Original MDG Target (as of 2005)
Goal 8 – Develop a global partnership for development
(NQ) Target 12. Develop further an open,
rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory
trading and financial system (includes a
commitment to good governance,
development, and poverty reduction –
both nationally and internationally)
(NQ) Target 13. Address the special needs
of the Least Developed Countries (includes
tariff- and quota-free access for Least
Developed Countries’ exports, enhanced
program of debt relief for heavily indebted
poor countries [HIPC] and cancellation of
official bilateral debt, and more generous
official development assistance for
countries committed to poverty reduction)
(NQ) Target 14. Address the special needs
of landlocked developing countries and
small island developing states (through the
Program of Action for the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing
nd
States and 22 General Assembly
provisions)
(NQ) Target 15. Deal comprehensively
with the debt problems of developing
countries through national and
international measures in order to make
debt sustainable in the long term
(NQ) Target 16. In cooperation with
developing countries, develop and
implement strategies for decent and
productive work for youth
(NQ) Target 17. In cooperation with
pharmaceutical companies, provide access
to affordable essential drugs in developing
countries
(NQ) Target 18. In cooperation with the
private sector, make available the benefits
of new technologies, especially
information and communications
technologies
Note: (Q) indicates quantitative Target. (NQ) indicates non-quantitative Target.
Millennium Declaration Language (September 2000)
Para 12. We resolve therefore to create an environment – at the national
and global levels alike – which is conducive to development and to the
elimination of poverty.
Para 13. Success in meeting these objectives depends, inter alia, on good
governance within each country. It also depends on good governance at the
international level and on transparency in the financial, monetary and
trading systems. We are committed to an open, equitable, rule-based,
predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system.
Para 15. We also undertake to address the special needs of the least
developed countries. […] We call on the industrialized countries:
• To adopt, preferably by [May 2001], a policy of duty- and quota-free access
for essentially all exports from the least developed countries;
• To implement the enhanced programme of debt relief for the heavily
indebted poor countries without further delay and to agree to cancel all
official bilateral debts of those countries in return for their making
demonstrable commitments to poverty reduction; and
• To grant more generous development assistance, especially to countries
that are genuinely making an effort to apply their resources to poverty
reduction.
Para 17. We also resolve to address the special needs of small island
developing States, by implementing the Barbados Programme of Action and
the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly
rapidly and in full. We urge the international community to ensure that, in
the development of a vulnerability index, the special needs of small island
developing States are taken into account.
Para 18. We recognize the special needs and problems of the landlocked
developing countries, and urge both bilateral and multilateral donors to
increase financial and technical assistance to this group of countries to meet
their special development needs and to help them overcome the
impediments of geography by improving their transit transport systems.
Para 16. We are also determined to deal comprehensively and effectively
with the debt problems of low- and middle-income developing countries,
through various national and international measures designed to make their
debt sustainable in the long term.
Para 20. We also resolve: […] To develop and implement strategies that give
young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.
Para 20. We also resolve: […] To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to
make essential drugs more widely available and affordable by all who need
them in developing countries.
Para 20. We also resolve: […]
• To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with civil
society organizations in pursuit of development and poverty eradication.
• To ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information
and communication technologies, in conformity with recommendations
contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration, are available to all.
6
Table 2: Key Foreign Aid Language from 2002 Monterrey Consensus and 2000 Millennium Declaration

Monterrey conference on Financing for Development (2002) Millennium Declaration language (2000)

Para 39. Official development assistance (ODA) plays an essential role
as a complement to other sources of financing for development,
especially in those countries with the least capacity to attract private
direct investment. ODA can help a country to reach adequate levels
of domestic resource mobilization over an appropriate time horizon,
while human capital, productive and export capacities are enhanced.
ODA can be critical for improving the environment for private sector
activity and can thus pave the way for robust growth. ODA is also a
crucial instrument for supporting education, health, public
infrastructure development, agriculture and rural development, and
to enhance food security. For many countries in Africa, least
developed countries, small island developing States and landlocked
developing countries, ODA is still the largest source of external
financing and is critical to the achievement of the development goals
and targets of the Millennium Declaration and other internationally
agreed development targets.
Para 40. Effective partnerships among donors and recipients are
based on the recognition of national leadership and ownership of
development plans and, within that framework, sound policies and
good governance at all levels are necessary to ensure ODA
effectiveness. A major priority is to build those development
partnerships, particularly in support of the neediest, and to maximize
the poverty reduction impact of ODA. The goals, targets and
commitments of the Millennium Declaration and other
internationally agreed development targets can help countries to set
short- and medium-term national priorities as the foundation for
building partnerships for external support. […]
Para 14. “We are concerned about the obstacles
developing countries face in mobilizing the resources
needed to finance their sustained development. We will
therefore make every effort to ensure the success of the
High-level International and Intergovernmental Event on
Financing for Development, to be held in 2001.”
Para 15. “We call on the industrialized countries:
[…] To grant more generous development assistance,
especially to countries that are genuinely making an effort
to apply their resources to poverty reduction.”
Para 18. “We recognize the special needs and problems of
the landlocked developing countries, and urge both
bilateral and multilateral donors to increase financial and
technical assistance to this group of countries to meet
their special development needs and to help them
overcome the impediments of geography by improving
their transit transport systems.”
Para 28. “We resolve […] To take special measures to
address the challenges of poverty eradication and
sustainable development in Africa, including debt
cancellation, improved market access, enhanced Official
Development Assistance and increased flows of Foreign
Direct Investment, as well as transfers of technology.”

Para 41. We recognize that a substantial increase in ODA and other

resources will be required if developing countries are to achieve the
internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including
those contained in the Millennium Declaration. To build support for
ODA, we will cooperate to further improve policies and development
strategies, both nationally and internationally, to enhance aid
effectiveness.

Para 42. In that context, we urge developed countries that have not
done so to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7 per cent
of gross national product (GNP) as ODA to developing countries and
0.15 to 0.20 per cent of GNP of developed countries to least
developed countries, as reconfirmed at the Third United Nations
Conference on Least Developed Countries, and we encourage
developing countries to build on progress achieved in ensuring that
ODA is used effectively to help achieve development goals and
targets. We acknowledge the efforts of all donors, commend those
donors whose ODA contributions exceed, reach or are increasing
towards the targets, and underline the importance of undertaking
to examine the means and time frames for achieving the targets
and goals. [emphasis added]

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Table 3: MDG Targets Added or Revised Following 2005 UN World Summit Agreements

Post-2005 Incremental/Revised MDG Target World Summit Outcome Document (2005)

Para 47.
“We strongly support fair globalization and resolve to make
the goals of full and productive employment and decent work
Target 1.B
for all, including for women and young people, a central
Achieve full and productive employment and decent
objective of our relevant national and international policies as
work for all, including women and young people
well as our national development strategies, including
poverty reduction strategies, as part of our efforts to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals.”

Para 57.
Target 5.B
“We commit ourselves to: […] (g) Achieving universal access
Achieve universal access to reproductive health
to reproductive health by 2015.”

Para 57.
“We commit ourselves to: […] (d) Developing and
Target 6.B
implementing a package for HIV prevention, treatment and
Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for
care with the aim of coming as close as possible to the goal of
HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
universal access to treatment by 2010 for all those who need
it.”

Target 7.B. Para 56 (c).

Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a “All States will fulfil commitments and significantly reduce the
significant reduction in the rate of loss rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010.”

Note: Latest targets taken from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

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Table 4: Mapping of Original MDG Targets 1 through 18 to Current MDG Targets 1.A through 8.F

Original Revised Target Language

Target Target
Number Label
GOAL 1
1 1.A Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1
a day
16 * 1.B Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and
young people
2 1.C Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
GOAL 2
3 2.A Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete
a full course of primary schooling
GOAL 3
4 3.A Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and
in all levels of education no later than 2015
GOAL 4
5 4.A Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
GOAL 5
6 5.A Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
[new] 5.B Achieve universal access to reproductive health
GOAL 6
7 6.A Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
[new] 6.B Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
8 6.C Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major
diseases
GOAL 7
9 7.A Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs
and reverse the loss of environmental resources
[new] 7.B Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
10 7.C Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation
11 7.D Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum dwellers
GOAL 8
12 8.A Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and
financial system **
13 8.B Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries **
14 8.C Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island
developing states **
15 8.D Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries **
17 8.E In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential
drugs in developing countries
18 8.F In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications **
*Target language was tweaked following 2005 UN World Summit. See Table 3 plus explanation under point #6 in text.
** Simplified Target language indicated, as extracted from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals on February 21, 2013.

9
 Appendix I: Extracted Text of September 2000 UN Millennium Declaration, Section III

III. Development and poverty eradication

11. We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and
dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently
subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing
the entire human race from want.

12. We resolve therefore to create an environment – at the national and global levels alike – which is
conducive to development and to the elimination of poverty.

13. Success in meeting these objectives depends, inter alia, on good governance within each country. It
also depends on good governance at the international level and on transparency in the financial,
monetary and trading systems. We are committed to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and
non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system.

14. We are concerned about the obstacles developing countries face in mobilizing the resources needed
to finance their sustained development. We will therefore make every effort to ensure the success of
the High-level International and Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development, to be held in
2001.

15. We also undertake to address the special needs of the least developed countries. In this context, we
welcome the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries to be held in May 2001
and will endeavour to ensure its success. We call on the industrialized countries:

• To adopt, preferably by the time of that Conference, a policy of duty- and quota-free access for
essentially all exports from the least developed countries;

• To implement the enhanced programme of debt relief for the heavily indebted poor countries without
further delay and to agree to cancel all official bilateral debts of those countries in return for their
making demonstrable commitments to poverty reduction; and

• To grant more generous development assistance, especially to countries that are genuinely making an
effort to apply their resources to poverty reduction.

16. We are also determined to deal comprehensively and effectively with the debt problems of low- and
middle-income developing countries, through various national and international measures designed to
make their debt sustainable in the long term.

17. We also resolve to address the special needs of small island developing States, by implementing the
Barbados Programme of Action and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General
Assembly rapidly and in full. We urge the international community to ensure that, in the development of
a vulnerability index, the special needs of small island developing States are taken into account.

18. We recognize the special needs and problems of the landlocked developing countries, and urge both
bilateral and multilateral donors to increase financial and technical assistance to this group of countries

10
to meet their special development needs and to help them overcome the impediments of geography by
improving their transit transport systems.

19. We resolve further:

• To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar
a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the
proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.

• To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a
full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.

• By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child
mortality by two thirds, of their current rates.

• To have, by then, halted, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and
other major diseases that afflict humanity.

• To provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

• By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
as proposed in the "Cities Without Slums" initiative.

20. We also resolve:

• To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty,
hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.

• To develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent
and productive work.

• To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs more widely available and
affordable by all who need them in developing countries.

• To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with civil society organizations in pursuit of
development and poverty eradication.

• To ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication
technologies, in conformity with recommendations contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial
Declaration, are available to all.

11